What has happened to McFeeleys

Amen, brother!
I have several folks in my social group that work for the government, and t
he way they describe the waste (explained to me as , "since when is providi
ng jobs/employment a waste?") for people that do nothing is incredible.
One has a govt job that has a section of about 45 people. There is so litt
le work that they actually bid on the work to be done against their fellow
employees, and then the folks that don't bid have nothing to do. They are
written up if they have 3 months in a row with little or no production, but
since they are only making about $60K a year each, the govt doesn't fuss t
hat much over the small potatoes.
Robert

Man... I am so out of touch with the rest of the world sometimes. I have b
een self employed for over thirty years now and it never has occurred to me
(except in a cigar smoke and whiskey induced pleasant dream) of being able
to pick and choose my work or how hard I would like to work that week or m
onth. I cannot in my wildest dreams imagine being very well paid and then g
etting to decide what I wanted to do and how hard I wanted to work.
I never worked for anyone that gave me a choice, either. I was paid a wage
about 40+ years ago, then have worked for myself or on commission only for
the rest of the time. I am amazed at the concept of 3 week plus vacations
, 10 days paid sick/personal time a year, and all kinds of other things tha
t go on in the workplace now as nearly a case of American Civil Rights.
When I started in the trades in the 70s, I worked for a very progressive gu
y that let us have 1 week vacation (unheard of for trades people then)that
was UNPAID. No sick days. He worked all of us like rented mules, and if w
e didn't like it that was fine. You could always quit. Or get fired. His
hourly pay was low, but we had a ton of overtime weekly, he paid time and
a half, and his checks never bounced.
I could never in a million years imagine approaching that mean old hard cas
e from Jasper, Texas to tell him I wanted to bid on the work I was interest
ed in.
Gawd, I feel like a dinosaur.
Robert

OK, I think you're misunderstanding how this works. There's
a set number of jobs (postal routes, whatever), that matches
the number of workers. Guys bid on which one they want. The
bidder with highest seniority wins. Typically, the new guy
ends up with the least desirable job - worst hours, least
overtime, grouchiest customers or whatever. Then they work
that job every day until something changes (a new route is
added, or something), then everyone bids again.
I can use my buddy at the railroad as an example. Last time
they rearranged jobs and everyone had to rebid, he had two
he bid on (he's in the middle of the seniority rank, so no
point bidding on the best jobs). One was a day job that
usually worked 8 hours, the other went on at 3am but usually
got a couple hours overtime each day. A lot of guys wouldn't
bid the 3am job, even tho it paid better, because of the
hours. My buddy actually likes working nights, so he was
pleased to win that job.
John

Not exactly. There's a list of jobs, and everyone bids at
the same time. Highest seniority guy bidding on a particular
job wins it.
If you don't win the job you bid on, you stay in your current
job, unless someone with higher seniority bid on it. If that
happens you get a "roll", and you get to pick from the jobs
held by lower seniority guys. That propagates down the chain
until everyone is in a job.
It sounds like it could get messy, but in practice everyone
knows their seniority, and which jobs different people like,
so guys just bid the job they know they'll get. Pretty much
the only thing that scrambles it up is when an older guy
decides to move from a job with lots of overtime to one with
fewer hours (because he doesn't need the money and wants to
take it easy for the his few years). Then you have a high
seniority guy bidding on what's usually a low seniority job,
and a low seniority guy might end up in the primo job if he's
the only one who took a chance bidding on it.
(note - I've never actually worked that sort of union job,
so this is based on how I understand what my buddy at the
railroad has explained)
John

On Saturday, September 26, 2015 at 10:09:24 AM UTC-4, John McCoy wrote:

I still don't understand your use of the word "bid". As far as I know, to "bid" on something usually involves money.
"I won the auction because I bid higher than everyone else."
"I got the contract because I bid lower than everyone else."
I assume that these guys aren't paying the jobs or taking a lower salary to get them, so how is this a "bidding" process?

> "I won the auction because I bid higher than everyone else."
>
> "I got the contract because I bid lower than everyone else."
>
> I assume that these guys aren't paying the jobs or taking a lower > >
> salary to get them, so how is this a "bidding" process?
Bidding is tendering an offer for something,usually in an auction style
format. The something could be anything, like a car, or a job, or a wife.
What the offer you are tendering could be money, years of service, or goats.
I bid 3 goats for your daughter, I bid 20 years service for that job, I
big 200 gold bars for that Festool vacuum.

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